Patrick Bamford undoubtedly played the best football of his career at Leeds United under Marcelo Bielsa.
Bamford started 44 of Leeds’ 46 matches during the promotion campaign back in 2019/20, before then scoring 17 goals in the Premier League in Leeds‘ first season back, which won him his one and only England cap.
Bielsa has and always will be renowned for the meticulous detail he used to go into for analysis, as shown in the fact he decided to watch every single one of Kalvin Phillips’ matches at Manchester City to give him a helping hand.
The now Uruguay boss had Leeds’ squad punching well above their weight and much of that was down to his tactics and preparation, the latter of which used to leave Bamford mind blown.
Speaking on the latest episode of the ‘My Mate’s A Footballer’ Podcast, Bamford revealed in the week leading up to a match, Bielsa would tell the squad how a match was going to pan out, and somehow was always right.
Bamford shares Bielsa story which left him mind blown
He said: “One thing I do remember is during the week leading up to a game under Marcelo, he would literally say this is how the game is going to go, and if they are going to score, they will score like this. And this is how we’re going to score.
“I kid you not, it is like he had a crystal ball and had seen the game already. Every week he would get it bang on, honestly it was incredible and he knew everything that would happen. He’d called it days before, honestly mind blowing.”
Leeds will never have a manager like Bielsa ever again and so although far-fetched, this story feels entirely real based on the level of detail he used to go into.
Liam Cooper claimed that on the first day of meeting Bielsa, he knew his career at Leeds would turn around and had it not been for him, it is unlikely the Leeds skipper would’ve ever played in the Premier League.
Daniel Farke is certainly doing a wonderful job in his own way at Elland Road right now, but Bielsa will always feel the most special for supporters are single-handedly dragging the club out of mediocrity.